NC Co-ops Discuss Innovation, Service at Annual Meeting

By Scott Gates

North Carolina electric cooperative leaders met in Raleigh this April for the 2018 Statewide Annual Meeting. Speakers and presentations addressed topics related to the meeting theme, “Energy Solutions: Inspired by innovation, driven by service.”

A youth leadership panel reflected on the meeting theme as it relates to navigating high school, college and early career paths. Panelists included Shakera Davis, a former Tideland EMC Youth Tourist; Jeremy Dewberry, Communications Specialist at Four County EMC; and Chetan Singalreddy, 2018 Youth Leadership Council representative and EnergyUnited Youth Tourist. The group discussed their goals and inspirations, as well as views on the role of innovation in communities.

The youth leadership panel discussed innovation in communities.

“The most important thing about innovation is not being afraid to get out there and do something different,” Davis said. “To be innovative is to wake up every morning and say: Can I be better than the person I was yesterday?”

Other speakers included Mary Powell, CEO of Vermont-based Green Mountain Power, and Dale Lambert, board president of the North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation and CEO of Randolph EMC.

Lambert pointed to an Aladdin kerosene lamp on stage as an example of innovation in its day, going on to discuss his co-op’s early leaders, innovators in first connecting members’ homes for electric service.

“So what story will we write? Twenty, thirty years from now, what stories will be told about the co-op leaders here in this room and across North Carolina?” Lambert asked the crowd. “We have a great opportunity to write that story. Strategically, we’re on the right track to ensuring we’re serving that member at the end of the line in the best way possible.”

YOUTH LEADERSHIP SCHOLARSHIPS

The North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives awards three scholarships each year to Youth Tour participants from the past year. North Carolina's Electric Cooperatives produced video profiles of each of these young scholars.

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